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Programs & Events

Each academic year, Dittmar features a number of engaging programs and events inspired by current and upcoming exhibitions in the gallery. Learn more below about upcoming opportunities.

 


 

Upcoming Programs & Events

 

jingle cone artwork
 
Jingle Cone Making Workshop

A hands-on workshop lead by artist Chelsea Bighorn

 

Thursday, January 16, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery 

 

 

Come join us in learning how to make mini jingle cones with artist Chelsea Bighorn. In this workshop we will be learning a brief history of the jingle cone dress dance and then make small pieces inspired by the artists own jingle cone project. We will be rolling our mini cones and then using jump rings to attach them to each other similar to how you would make chainmail. Each participant will then be able to take home a small piece of jingle cone chainmail.

All materials will be provided.  This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome. Photo credits: courtesy of the artist

 

TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT

portrait of chelsea bighorn artistÂ鶹´«Ã½ the Artist

Chelsea Bighorn was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, and is Lakota, Dakota and Shoshone -Paiute. Bighorns work is the result of her combining traditional Native American design with elements from her Irish American heritage. Using this process, she tells her personal history through her art.

 Bighorn has shown her work at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, SITE Santa Fe, Catharine Clark Gallery in San Fransico, and The Center for Native Futures in Chicago, IL. She graduated from The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts. Bighorn received her Master of Fine Arts in Fiber and Material Studies from School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. She currently resides in Chicago, IL where she is an artist in residence with Chicago Artist Coalition.

Co-Sponsorship generously provided by:

CNAIR logo

 

 

 


 

Past Events

 

Drop-In Mindfulness Meditation 

Friday, November 22

Dittmar Memorial Gallery

 

Join us for Mindfulness Meditation at Dittmar Gallery in Norris. More information about Drop-in Mediation can be found on the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mindfulness page

Mindful Movement will begin at 3:30pm and Drop-In Meditation will begin at 4:00pm.

 


 

/norris/arts-recreation/dittmar-gallery/a20fb3af-2755-4356-91c6-510d58f64695-copy.jpegStorytelling Through Weaving

A weaving workshop with artist Bryana Bibbs 

 

Tuesday, November 12, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery 

 

TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT


Learn with artist Bryana Bibbs and explore the art of weaving. Weavers will use cardboard looms to weave and explore materiality by using objects they have brought or found and how they are significant to us. In addition to weaving with found materials, weavers will learn how to weave on a frame loom basic using woven structures such as plain weave and slit tapestry weave. Weavers are encouraged to bring materials from home (twigs, rocks, flowers, old clothes, etc.), additional materials will be provided.  This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome. 

Photo credit: courtesy of the artist

/norris/arts-recreation/dittmar-gallery/bryana-headshot.jpgÂ鶹´«Ã½ the Artist

Bio from website: Bryana Bibbs is a Chicago-based artist who works at the intersection of textiles, painting, and community-based practices. Bibbs earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of , serves on the Surface Design Association’s Education Committee, and was named one of 
Photo credit: Tanal Simmons

 

 

 

 

 


 
/norris/arts-recreation/dittmar-gallery/img_3932.jpg
Quilt Poems

An artist-led workshop with Daliah Silver


Monday, November 18, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery


TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT

 

 

 

 

Quilts tell a story, through the fabric design, material, giver and recipient, and any words the maker chooses to add to their quilt. Workshop participants will learn to stitch their favorite poem, quote, or passage onto fabric, practice different embroidery stitches, and design a quilt block. This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome.

 

/norris/arts-recreation/dittmar-gallery/2024_daliah_headshot.jpgÂ鶹´«Ã½ the Artist

Daliah Silver is a multi-medium textile artist. She has been knitting and hand sewing since childhood, taught by many generations of Persian and English family members. She borrowed a friend’s sewing machine at the start of the pandemic, and began sewing her own clothes, using the scraps to build quilts for friends and family. Her latest work explores how quiet activism and memory intersects with fabric, creating positive affirmation and protest banners in the styles of the suffragette movement. Due to the acknowledged excessive overuse of fabric waste, Daliah intentionally uses second hand or recycled materials in her quilts and banners. More recently, she has been exploring the world of natural dyes, and how text in quilts can add multiple dimensions to the work.  

 


 
Accumulation as Metaphor Art Workshop

An artist-led workshop with Katie Vota


Wednesday, November 20, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery

 

Artist Richard Serra famously said, "Drawing is a verb." In this workshop, participants will reference Serra’s work Verb List, in which he compiled a series of "actions to relate to oneself, material, place, and process," to create a sculpture. Based on modalities of reuse, participants will collect and transform a quantity of an object into art, using provided fasteners and a verb of their choosing. 

This workshop will guide participants to think about common objects in new ways, sparking creativity and fresh perspectives in their approach to art. Participants are encouraged to think outside the box in their material choices by asking:

“Where do I see material excess in my daily life?” 

“How can objects considered to be ‘trash’ have second lives outside their intended use?” 

“How do I use my networks and community to accumulate enough of something that it transcends our immediate understanding of the object?” 

This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome.

 

PLEASE TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT

Â鶹´«Ã½ the Artist
Katie Vota seeks to (re)evaluate our relationships to materiality, community, and environment through the medium of tapestry re-imagined in the digital age.  Via collecting cast-offs and scavenging colors from nature, she transforms materials to create wholes from smaller parts, finding softness in many forms, textures, colors and patterns based in cloth.
Her current work utilizes pattern-based tapestry as a drawing medium to map the multitude of connections surrounding water as a shifting, living entity. The woven wave forms and seascapes are both real and imagined—the beating of the loom akin to the ebb/flow of the tides. In drafting weaving patterns, she creates her own waves and ripples, and this deep focus on pattern is akin to larger observations of the sun sparking off the water, or the moon reflecting its face. She juxtaposes the beautiful idealization of these images with the living reality of our polluted water systems.

 


 

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